A Phone Call From Santa

For Saturday, December 24, 2011

Although one might think they are too old to receive phone calls from Santa on Christmas Eve, my kids made it known to me that they hoped Santa would not forget them this year. I left a hint on Facebook tagging St. Nick’s favorite local elf and luckily he saw it. When the phone rang in the afternoon and I answered it, I was the first to hear Santa’s “Ho Ho Ho”.

“I hear you have a present arriving soon from the North?” Santa asked me. He had heard that Mom and Dad were on their way to my house for the holiday. “Yes, Santa, I do. I am very happy about that. Let me get the children now”.

Emma quickly got on the line. “Hello Santa”, she said. Then I went to find Paul, but he had jumped into the shower.

“Paul?! Santa is on the phone. Come talk to him!”

“Mom! I’m taking a shower. No”.

Never one to take no for an answer, I became a pest, knocking at the door of the bathroom, threatening to take a Q-tip to pop the lock, until he finally agreed to come out. He got on the line in the bedroom and rolled his eyes, but he was smiling as he listened in to the conversation between Santa and his sister.

There was giggling and the annual discussion of whether or not Santa sounded an awful lot like Uncle Kevin. There were debates on where Santa was at the moment. Santa said he was at the North Pole but Emma and NORAD had him tracked in Afghanistan. That led to questions about terrorism that only Santa himself could answer.

Oh sure, the conversations with Santa over the years have grown more complicated perhaps, but each Christmas Eve the children anticipate his annual phone call, almost as much as I do. I’m sure glad Santa did not assume the children had outgrown him. I am also happy that despite his busy schedule, he did not forget to call our home again this year.